Re: [Digital BW] dumb newbie question
2002-12-25 by Ken Carney
Marcel: Making a good b&w scan is indeed a challenge. (You mentioned a "B&W slide". Are you using Scala positive b&w film?). The scanning software is important, and some of it is not very good. Your Minolta multi-pro is a supported SCSI scanner for VueScan, which is excellent software. I would first get a copy of that (www.hamrick.com) and for $40 rule out software issues before spending money on another scanner. Actually, it's available as a free trial version with a watermarked image, which would give you some idea. You can use channel mixer or a Photoshop action (www.fredmiranda.com) to get a mono image from color, but at least for me it's always an inferior image. Something I've been doing lately: using Kodak Portra 400b&w and scanning (35mm with a Nikon 4000ED). In combination with the MIS VM-S inkset, beautiful images, sharp but with a "glow", like PlusX. Good luck. -Ken
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----- Original Message ----- From: Marcel Laufer To: digitalblackandwhitetheprint@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2002 8:38 AM Subject: [Digital BW] dumb newbie question I have been trying to follow this group for a few months now. I do not possess the technical knowledge that most of you do. I have been trying to get my 1160 with variable tone MIS inks up and running. I have been moderately successful when using either color slide or color neg. films. I have NOT been so with B&W. This has been a frustrating thing. My Minolta multi-pro scanner does not give me good scans from B&W. The histogram is always 'pushed over' to the left (appears dark with 'blown-out' highlights). Today I went over to a friend's and he scanned my B&W slide on an older AGFA ( model HID) which looks like a flat bed but isn't and scans either documents or film up to 8x10. And lo and behold a far superior scan! The histogram was nice and 'spread out' and the shadow's all had good detail. I have gathered by now that scanning silver halide films is not easy. I wonder, as a 'dumb newbie' to the field if someone would step up and tell me the short answers to the following questions: 1)Which (not too expensive) scanner is best for black and white? 2)Is there any LOSS of Quality using a color slide (or neg) and converting to monochrome (I usually do this in channel mixer after obtaining what looks like the right filtration). Is this 'cheating' in any way? I'm sure these are old questions and that those among you who are the most expert will find them boring. Thanks, ML -- Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, Bookmarks, Polls and other resources as they are often being updated. The page is at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this same page. Please follow these basic guidelines: - Include your full name with your message. - Include the address of your website, if you have one. - As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to keep them short. - As the topic of a thread changes remember to change the subject header. - Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or "flames." - Complete your Yahoo profile. - Before posting a question, search the message archives and the various resources on the homepage. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]